Field Trips Destroy Secrets
by Raven Iris
Summary: Clockwork sighed and said "All is as it should be." As he floated away with a frown on his face, he wondered for the first time if everything truly was, as it should be. Then, as if it never existed, Clockworks tower, in the realm of time… disappeared… Post D-Stabilised, Pre PP 1st story, rated T just to be safe. I own nothing but the plot! DP belongs to Butch Hartman. DxS,TxV.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

'This, cannot end well.' Thought Danny as he stared in complete and utter disdain at the field trip form in his hands. Earlier that day, Mr. Lancer had handed his small English 11 class a field trip form to visit the ghost zone. The two who would be leading this trip, his parents, Jack and Madeline Fenton. 'Typical, just typical.' If looks could kill, Danny's glare would have turned the paper into a pile of smoldering ashes long ago.

_**Flashback to Monday**_

_ Vlad Masters had announced that after a meeting with the school board, they had all come to an agreement that students should begin to learn more about the specters that haunted the town. Later that day, when Principal Ishiyama came into the eleventh grade English class announcing that the junior class would be the first to go on this experimental trip, the majority of the class was excited from the possibility of seeing Danny Phantom, while a few students looked scared at the notion of going into a realm full of ghosts. Valerie in the corner of the room by the window just looked deep in thought as she kept shooting glances at Danny when she thought he wasn't looking. Sam and Tucker, next to Danny, had just looked as if they were ready to pass out from the previous nights busy ghost patrol. None of them had gotten home until the sun was almost up the next day. No one but Danny seemed to notice that the Principals eyes had been glowing a bright red the entire day. _

It was now Thursday, and Danny could already tell that his parents were not going to let him stay home tomorrow, and his sister couldn't help him because she recently left for college at Yale. His only comfort was that both of his friends would be going with him. That plus, if anything were to happen, he and his friends were well trained and practiced in using the weapons and fighting the ghosts without relying on Danny's powers. About a week after the Danielle incident with Valerie, that had happened almost four months ago, Vlad came up with the Plasmius Maximus 2.9. Danny couldn't use any of his powers for eleven days, and by the end of day one, Team Phantom realized how much they relied on Danny's powers to handle the fights with the ghosts. By the end of day two, all of Danny's enemies in the ghost zone had learned about their _little_ predicament, and by day five Team Phantom was exhausted.

Luckily they finally worked out a system to fight together and now they all share the workload. The ghosts learned quickly that the Trio suddenly became much more difficult to fight. It probably didn't help that Danny's powers went through a growth spurt about three weeks later. It had been a strong enough power spurt that his HAZMAT suit went through a change as well.

He was now wearing white combat boots that went almost halfway up his shins and they had black laces that were done all the way up, and he now wore black cargo pants with pockets to hold some of his smaller weapons and gadgetry. His pants were loosely fitted to allow free movement and they went down to cover the top part of his boots a little ways past where his ankles would be. On his belt loops was a single long thin silver white chain that wrapped around him loosely twice, allowing for it to dip down towards the back on the left side and a little bit of a dip towards the front on the right side. Because it wraps around him twice, it looks like two separate chains, when it's only one long one. Danny even discovered that it was an extension of him. With the same amount of thought that is required to move an arm, he could use it to tie up weaker ghosts. The Box Ghost had been the unfortunate soul to discover that Danny could also use it as a whip. His top is still mostly the same now, except that it's not as tight or form fitting as it used to be, and on the sleeves by the shoulders are two white bands tied off with a black buckle. His gloves are now separate to his long sleeves and even go over them where they are then secured in place by a black band with a white buckle.

Sam and Tucker thought his new outfit was cool and as a congrats gift they made him a new utility belt. It had originally been a black belt with white hooks and small white pockets, as well as his emblem colored white as the buckle, but when he put it on his ghost form seemed to accept it and it inverted colors and became part of the outfit. As a special feature it came with a small thermos that was twice as small and could hold four times more ghosts than the original thermoses could, and it could now handle ghosts twice as powerful. It had originally been a white thermos with black lines and trimmings so it stood out from the belt, but it too had inverted colors. Tucker had even thoughtfully put into the belt a specter deflector feature that recognized Danny's ecto-signature as well as their allies, so that it didn't shock friendlies, and the belt's buckle had a built in cushion to protect his lower abdomen since he was often punched in the gut.

Tucker had started inventing machines and gadgets that could help them while ghost hunting and his best feature was the ability to make things shrink down to sizes that should not have been possible. He had been inspired when he heard that Mrs. Fenton had sleeping bag capsules that would grow from pills to regular sleeping bags when water was added. His inventions can't shrink down to capsule size, however, the Fenton wrist rays, the Fenton Peeler, the Jack-O-Nine Tails, the Anti-Creep Stick, the Fenton Bazooka, the Booomerang, the portable ghost portal, and the Fenton Phones (now dubbed Phantom Phones) could now easily be carried in a pocket altogether without making the pockets bulge to tightly. The only down side is that he couldn't figure out how to make them weigh as little as their size, so it often felt like they were carrying around an armory 24/7.

Now they were always prepared and they all had on Specter Deflectors that Tucker designed to look like thin regular belts with their choice of color and style. They were all calibrated to accept Danny as a friendly and recognize his signature as well as Danielle's. Right now they were all in Danny's room making a check list of things that they would need to take into the Ghost Zone with them while Danny kept staring at the form in his hands willing it to disappear off the face of the planet. Since they were leaving on a Friday morning, the class was going to be spending all of Friday, Saturday and the first half on Sunday in the Ghost Zone. They weren't expected to come back until sometime Sunday afternoon.

"All right, ten pairs of Phantom Phones?" Sam asked.

"Checked and packed," replied Tucker.

"Ten sets of Fenton wrist rays?"

"Packed and ready to go," Tucker stated.

"Do we have enough specter deflectors for everybody, Tuck?" Danny asked as he finally put down the paper to help them pack the things they would need in case of an emergency.

"Yeah dude, I started working on extra ones three days ago when the field trip was first announced. Now we even have extras for if we ever lose any." He said in a calm tone.

"Danny, have your parents even ever been in the Ghost Zone?" Sam asked as she looked up from packing their weaponry into their bags.

"Nope."

"Wait, your parents built a portal to a pocket dimension of infinite realms in their basement, that they have supposedly wanted to explore since their college days and not once have they even poked their heads in to see what it looks like?!" Tucker asked with a look of scrutiny on his face as he stared at Danny waiting for a response. Danny replied with a dead panned tone and an expression to match it.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it all up right now."

"And they are taking in a bunch of high school kids when they don't even know their way around." Sam asked but her tone said it was more of a statement of disbelief.

"Yep." Was the reply with the 'p' popped at the end. "By the way Sam, how did you convince your parents to let you go on this suicidal trip?"

"I didn't, they had seen Vlad make the announcement on the city news, and because it came from our rich and perfect role model of a mayor, they decided that if he thought it was for the best then they would give it a shot." Her words heavily laced with sarcasm. "Well, on the bright side of things, if anything happens, we should be able to handle it…even if it does raise questions of why we know how to fight ghosts so well. Hopefully it won't come to that though, but better safe than sorry, so it's a good thing that we're preparing for the worst-

"Now we just have to hope for the best." Tucker finished cutting off Sam. "Don't worry dude, whatever happens while we're in there, we'll be able to handle. I'm just finding it a little hard to believe that Vlad is funding this whole thing."

"Yeah, well what doesn't surprise me is when he came to suggest it to my Dad first, who was very quick to agree." Danny frowned at the memory.

"Don't worry Danny, we've all been doing this as a fair team for a while now. We're not the same freshmen who started out stumbling their way through things anymore." Sam put a reassuring hand on Danny's shoulder as she said this.

" I know Sam, and because of it, my grades and your guy's grades have improved significantly. I've finally managed to regain my original GPA of a 3.8 from before the accident, and I think that Mr. Lancer is happy. I still take my frequent 'bathroom breaks' but he's stopped getting on my case about my grades and I'm rarely ever late for school any more, so I hardly ever have detention now." Danny smiled, as he looked Sam in the eyes. About a month ago, they had finally started dating without anyone other than Tucker knowing. The Manson's already hate Danny for coming from a family of eccentric ghost hunters, they didn't want to give them another reason for hating him, or filing a restraining order.

"And whose help is making it possible for you to have a life again?" Sam smirked as she crossed her arms and looked at Danny waiting for the obvious answer.

"Yours and Tuckers." Danny looked down as he quietly answered with a tone of gratitude.

"Dude, we'll be fine tomorrow. What's the worst that could happen?" Tucker said as he went back to packing, not noticing the furious glares he received from his two friends as they both thought, 'great… Bad Luck Tuck strikes once again and jinxes us.' Danny just sighed as he muttered under his breath, "We're doomed."


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hi everybody, Raven here. I just wanted to say thank you for reading my first story, I know it's been done several times but I absolutely love reveal Fan Fictions. So on to the story. Oh yeah, and before I forget (and so I don't have to repeat myself) Danny Phantom and characters do not belong to me, they are property of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. ****Now**** onto the story. **

Chapter 2:

The next day was beautiful. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and there wasn't a cloud (or ghost to make him late) in sight. All in all it felt like the world was mocking him. In one hour, Danny and his class would be entering the ghost zone for a field trip and Danny felt absolutely helpless to stop it. He didn't like feeling helpless. When Sam made that wish that she had never met Danny, and he never received his power's, he learned that even though his life could have been normal then, he was much happier with the life he had now because he was able to help people rather than just sit on the sidelines. He's been fighting ghosts for so long now that he doubted he would even be able to just stand aside and let someone else fight for him. His friends and sister always joked about him having a "Hero Complex", although now he was beginning to wonder if it was something more, he sometimes felt that he _had_ to help, to defend, to protect those in need. It was a bit concerning and he was beginning to think that maybe he hadn't escaped the fate of developing an obsession after all. Vlad certainly hadn't, and the fact that the only other person like him happened to be a psychotic fruit-loop, was of no comfort to Danny.

In fact the fruit-loop had been unnaturally calm and quiet. He was almost acting, dare he say it… _normal_, and Danny didn't like it one bit. Normal, from Vlad was unnerving because if Vlad was acting normal, then something was up. He only acted normal when he didn't want Danny and his friends to find out what he was plotting until it was too late, and this trip didn't sit right with Danny. He looked over at his clock that read 7:01 A.M. 'Damn, it's only been a minute.' As he continued to stare at the clock he cursed Clockwork in his mind for making the dreaded time go by so painstakingly slowly. As the clock switched to 7:02, he sighed and began to carefully climb out of bed tapping into his powers to help him float a little to not disturb his friend and girlfriend who had been sleeping next to him. As he made his way to the door Sam suddenly woke up and Danny couldn't help but admire how nice she looked in the morning, even if she hated the morning almost as much as she hated the color pink. As she looked around to take note of the time and rub some of the sleep out of her eyes, she said, "Danny, when did you wake up?"

"Just a couple of minutes ago," He replied as he quietly made his way back to her with her bag so she could begin to get ready for the day.

"Thanks." She said as she began to climb out of the bed, the springs creaking under the shifting weight. "What's for breakfast?"

"I don't know but if we don't make it ourselves and let my mom make it, our food might try to eat us again. Jazz is still scarred from the leftover ecto-weenies. The only ones who were able to actually eat them were my dad and I and then I was the only one who didn't get sick from eating them."

"Well, you are the only one that actually needs to consume ectoplasm on a regular basis, that or feed off emotions, so maybe it's a good thing that your parents can't cook a normal meal." Sam replied with a sleepy smirk. Remembering that Tucker was still asleep, they both looked at him and couldn't help but chuckle as they saw that he fell asleep hugging his PDA to his chest as he curled up peacefully with a smile on his face. They had known each other for the majority of their lives, and they all noticed that before the accident, they could always tell how they were feeling, even if they were in separate rooms, they always knew, and often times they would say things at the same time as if their minds were in sync. After the accident they started to notice that their connection had grown. At first they had been confused. They kept thinking that they were hearing things when in reality they were beginning to hear each other. With some practice they learned how to hold silent conversations and share memories, and to a certain degree, they could see through each other's eyes. It was with this connection that Danny and Sam silently agreed to have a little bit of fun with Tucker. Together the both stood over Tucker on either side and loudly yelled.

"TUCKER, HELP!"

"AAAHH!" He yelled as he jumped out of the bed and fell on the floor in a heap of blankets and Tucker. "Danny, Sam, I'm coming!" He hastily replied as he scrambled to get up and grab his PDA as he tried to untangle himself from the blankets. Unable to hold it in any longer, Danny and Sam burst out laughing, leaning on each other for support. The sound of laughter was enough to break Tucker out of his daze, as he stopped his losing battle with the cocoon of bed sheets, he looked at his friends, put on his glasses, and in an annoyed manner that bordered on the edge of whiny, said, "You guys… Not cool."

"It was pretty funny though, Tuck." Danny said as he stopped laughing.

"And it got you up and out of bed in record time" Sam smirked as she crossed her arms and looked down where Tucker was slowly untangling his feet. While Tucker was trying to maintain his dignity, Danny looked at the clock and felt his good mood abruptly fizzling out with a 'pop,' as the clock that kept flashing, 7:06, reminded him of what they were doing today. Sensing Danny's mood and what was causing it, Sam and Tucker made their way over to him by the clock and put reassuring hands on his shoulders.

"We'll be fine dude."

"Tucker's right Danny, we can handle it so long as we stay and work together."

Smiling at their effort to make him feel better, Danny smiled and looking at both of them simply said, "Thanks guys."

Downstairs, at 7:43 A.M., Mr. Lancer sat in the living room staring at the clock. 7:44, he sighed as the time ticked by slowly as if it were mocking him. His mind was on the trip into the ghost zone that they were supposed to leave for in 20-30 minutes. Paulina, Dash, Star, and Kwan had already arrived a good seven minutes ago. Mr. Lancer, who had been here since 7:25, had arrived to find Daniel opening the door with a polite "Morning Mr. Lancer." As he made his way into the living room, he saw Ms. Manson, and Mr. Foley sitting in the kitchen with Danny eating a breakfast that looked as if it could feed a small army. By the time the A-Lister's, as they were often called, arrived, the mysterious trio had already gone upstairs to get ready. When Mr. Lancer had opened the door for his students, not one of them had the common courtesy to say a "Hello". They just walked in laughing and chatting as if they owned the place. Mikey, Nathan, and Lester had all shown up quietly together and after a "Hello" to Mr. Lancer and the Fenton's, who by then had come upstairs from the basement to say hello to their guests, they quickly moved to a corner in the room far away from the popular kids.

When Valerie arrived she had politely knocked and said "Hello" to the Fenton's and Mr. Lancer. She was currently sitting on a chair by the stairs. Mr. Lancer couldn't help but feel a little bit sorry for her. She had been part of the A-Lister's until her father lost his job for failing to uphold his part of a contract of designing the best security system that Axiom Labs has ever seen. Practically the next day she had dropped from the top to the bottom of the social grapevine. On the bright side, Casper High's mysterious trio had become her new friends. True she wasn't as tightly knit with them as they were with each other, but at least he knew that she wasn't alone. With a glance at Ms. Sanchez, Mr. Lancer frowned at what she was wearing. The field trip form had specifically said to wear clothes and shoes that would be comfortable in hiking and camping scenarios since they would be spending the weekend in the Ghost Zone. Paulina had on dainty white heels, a light blue mini skirt that showed off her legs, a thin white belt tied loosely around her waist that drooped down on the rights side of her hips, and a light pink tee that showed off her midsection. If anything she looked as if she was going on a date to impress.

7:57, the room fell into silence as they waited for the trio to come down stairs so they could leave. In the silence they could hear the light music of Humpty Dumpty playing barely hiding any noises that the trio could be making. Finally they came down surprising the class at what they were wearing. Tucker was wearing his usual green cargo pants with brown hiking boots, but he was wearing a yellow hiking sweater with a few pockets instead of his usual yellow long sleeve tee. Sam was wearing black cargo capris with steel toed black hiking boots that went almost halfway up her shin's, they were tied off with purple laces. However, instead of her black and purple tank top, she was wearing a black hoodie with purple laces and it was sporting the DP logo. Danny was wearing black hiking boots that also went almost halfway up his shins and the laces were white and were tied all the way up. He had on black cargo pants with lots of pockets as well but his hoodie was black and green instead of his usual white and red. All of them were sporting a specter deflector disguised as a thin light weight belt. Danny's was white, Sam's was purple, and Tucker's was brown.

As the trio walked down the stairs, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at them, surprised by the difference in outfits. No one noticed the modified Fenton phones in their ears, except for Valerie, but she said nothing about it. Instead she was doing mental comparisons in her head. Noticing the stares, the Trio stopped at the bottom, looked at each other, and asked their class "What?" As if their voices had broken a spell, the class went back to ignoring them, and instead talked amongst themselves. Mr. Lancer however, continued to stare at them, thinking about his most mysterious and confusing students, especially Daniel Fenton. He remembered when he first saw Daniel as a freshman in high school. He had walked in with a look full of life and he appeared eager to learn. The first few weeks of school, Daniel had shown himself to be a promising student with an A-B average. But then, he got into an accident in his parents lab, something about electrocution and a light shock. His parents had him take a few days off from school to make sure that he was alright, and when he came back, the student that Mr. Lancer had become used to seeing, was gone. In his place was a student who looked on edge about everything, he always seemed upset and scared, he constantly needed to excuse himself from class, heaven knows why, and he had an extreme case of clumsiness. How he managed to drop 34 beakers in one month and be banned from handling any fragile objects, will forever be a mystery to him.

Then there was the whole thing with the C.A.T. He still couldn't figure out how Mr. Fenton had gotten his hands on the answers. They had been securely placed in his briefcase which was then locked and then handcuffed to his wrist. The only way that it could have possibly been done was if he had the ability to turn invisible and reach through solid objects. However, only ghosts were able to do those things and Danny Fenton was clearly alive. Then in the middle of the test, Mr. Fenton approached his desk at the front of the room, and looking dejected and as if his world had just ended, then given a second chance, he gave Mr. Lancer the answers with a broken seal. He even admitted that he looked at the answers, but he swore that he would never be a cheater, and the way he said it with such devotion convinced Mr. Lancer that he was telling the truth. At first he had been slightly suspicious when Mr. Fenton's grades began to improve suddenly, but then one day he caught him studying with his sister in the library, and when his grades started to hold steady, it seemed that he had finally gotten his act together. Unfortunately the constant bathroom breaks had not stopped, and like the rest of the small faculty, Mr. Lancer found that he just could never refuse the boy despite the fact that chances were often slim that Mr. Fenton would be back in time for the rest of the lecture.

The Fenton's chose that moment to walk back upstairs. Looking around the room, Maddie asked Mr. Lancer in surprise at the small amount, "Is this everyone?"

"Unfortunately, it is. You know as well as I do, Mrs. Fenton that several people have moved away from Amity Park over the years from all of the frequent ghost attacks."

"Yes, that is true; still it is a bit sad to see that you only have ten students in here. Oh well, I guess it is better this way, at least we definitely have room in the Specter Speeder Bus for all of us and the camping supplies, not to mention the food. Did everyone bring their packs full of food and drinks in case of an emergency?" At the nods from all of the students Maddie smiled and clapping her hands together she said "Well then, let's get going, we're wasting time!" As everyone walked down to the lab and marveled at all the appliances, Danny was the last one down and looking at the clock he saw it was 8:00.

Deep in the ghost zone, in a tower surrounded by clocks, that ticked away the hours even though time stood still in this realm, Clockwork gazed sadly at his time screen as he watched events unfold in front of him. The images stopped on an image of Danny huddled down, with him hugging his knees as he cried into his lap. With one last look at this, the image disappeared in a swirl of green. Clockwork sighed and said, "All is as it should be." As he floated away with a frown on his face, for the first time he wondered if everything truly was, as it should be. Then, as if it never existed, Clockworks tower in the realm of time… disappeared…

**AN: So… what did you guys think. Reviews would mean a lot to me, I want to know how I'm doing in your guy's eyes. Oh, and could someone please tell me if it's normal for my story to not be showing up on the Archive. I look but I don't see it, are you guys seeing it? Anyways, review and please help.**

**-Raven**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi everyone, here is the awaited chapter 3… I hope you all enjoy it, oh and I would like everyone's opinion if I should change the rating from M to T so read the chapter and tell me what you think.**

Ch. 3:

As Danny entered the lab he joined Sam and Tucker who actually looked at the Specter Speeder Bus with impressed expressions. The bus looked like a hybrid of the previous speeder, a school bus, and a small trailer, with a high tech and very sleek design. As jack spoke he called the class's attention to himself.

"This baby here is the Fenton Specter Speeder Bus of the Fenton sub for short, and it's spelled S.S.B., not S.U.B. or my name isn't Fenton!"

With that last statement he smiled and pointed at himself with his thumb. In the background, Danny looked down in slight embarrassment as he resisted the urge to face palm. Mr. Lancer chose that moment to ask the Fenton's a question.

"Do you already have our course plotted out for the weekend, where will we be setting up camp?"

"Why would we have a course plotted out, this is a first time experience for everyone here." Maddie exclaimed with an excited smile on her face as Jack nodded his head enthusiastically beside her. Neither of the couple noticed the stunned looks on the student's faces, or Mr. Lancer's expression as he opened his mouth and closed it repeatedly as he tried to say the words that were racing through his mind. As the trio watched the scene in front of them with slight amusement, Mr. Lancer finally pulled himself together.

"Do you mean to tell me that neither of you have ever been inside the Ghost Zone?!" Disbelief in his tone.

"Why of course not, until recently, it seemed much too dangerous for us well known Ghost hunter, all of the Ghosts surely would have attacked us if they realized who we are." Maddie said with a tone similar to an adult trying to make a child understand a simple concept. Jack then pulled Maddie close to him and with his free hand he waved at the Fenton Sub and said excitedly with a flourish,

"This is exactly why this baby is supped up with an entire arsenal of weapons! No ghost will be able to approach us; it will automatically be shot, electrocuted, atomized, blasted, or ripped apart molecule by molecule. We even have a built in ghost shield as an emergency feature, right next to the emergency ham!"

As Jack just continue to beam with pride towards everyone, the entire class just questioned in silence 'emergency ham?'

"Now, then everyone please find your seats and put your bags in the compartment under your seats." Maddie said as she and Jack climbed into the pilot seats.

Mr. Lancer climbed in and sat in the seat behind them. Then the A-Lister's climbed in and sat in the back. The geeks and nerds, Nathan and Mikey, sat in the seat behind Mr. Lancer for safety from the bullying of the popular kids. Valerie then climbed in and chose a window seat in the middle row, of the far right, all the while looking deep in thought. Finally the Trio climbed into the Sub and altogether sat in the middle of the Sub so that they could cover every body in an emergency. Despite this, they still managed to have their own bubble of privacy.

Once every one was strapped in, Maddie began to flip the switches that turned on the ecto-converter powered engines, and the thrusters. By then everyone could hear the roar of the rockets, but the metal walls of the cabin muffled the noise to a hum. Then Danny watched as his dad reached for the Ghost Sensors and the moment it was on, red lights and a bell went off, followed by a female computerized voice saying,

"Warning! Warning! Level 8.3 ghost detected within vicinity!"

"Maddie, quick! The Fenton Finder 5.7!" Jack yelled as he shut off the blaring alarm.

"On it!" With the new and 'improved Fenton Finder in hand, they sprang up and turned it on. In the same voice from the alarm, the Fenton Finder 5.7 said,

"Welcome to the Fenton Finder 5.7, there is a ghost directly behind you, please turn around."

The entire class held their breath as the Fenton's made their way towards the middle, all the while the beeping noise from the Finder getting faster with their approach. Danny just watched them in boredom, from becoming used to these 'malfunctions', with only a slight twinge of worry mixed with nervousness. Finally the Fenton's stopped in front of Danny and looked up at their son as the machine said,

"Ghost located, you would have to be some kind of idiot to not see the ghost directly in front of you. Thank you for using the Fenton Finder 5.7."

As the Fenton's just stared at Danny in confusion, he just stared back in boredom. Finally Jack said in frustration.

"The darn thing _still_ doesn't work." Dash then chose to blurt out like an idiot,

"Ha! Fenton's no more a ghost than I am, and I'm not a ghost!" At this the class snickered, but Valerie just stared at Danny in complete shock, barely blinking, as if all the pieces to the puzzle had suddenly fallen into place. Maddie put a hand on Jack's shoulder and in a comforting tone that barely hid her own disappointment,

"Don't worry Hun; we'll fix that malfunction someday."

"I just don't understand why everything key's into Danny-boy here.' He replied. 'Or why everything always seems to malfunction."

At this, a lot of the class paled as his words repeated in their heads. 'Everything malfunctions…' Mr. Lancer looked as if he had just seen a ghost and was now ready to have a heart attack. With that the Fenton's sat down, took both sets of controls, and flew the Sub into the Ghost Zone.

Once they were gone, a pair of glowing red eyes and a fanged Cheshire cat grin appeared in the shadows of the lab. The figure was nothing more than a shadow hidden in the shadows, but as the grin widened, its clawed hand appeared holding a detonator. The figure waited a minute and pushed the bright red button. A beeping noise filled the lab and the figure disappeared. Attached to the side of the portal, a silver disk with a circle of red lights was flashing in a clockwise motion until they all flashed together twice, and an electric current spread across the portal until it fried and fizzled out. At 8:07 A.M. the portal was destroyed.

8:05, two minutes earlier:

In the Ghost Zone, everyone but the Trio and Valerie were looking around in wonder. Valerie had a somber expression on her face as she looked at Danny. She knew that she would have to confront him eventually and had just decided that sooner was better than later when Danny suddenly tensed and started looking around on edge, setting Valerie on edge.

'Something's wrong.' Both Danny and Valerie thought to themselves. Danny had known at that moment that something was about to go horribly wrong. Sam squeezed his hand in concern, and as she leaned over towards him, she quietly asked him,

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know... my ghost sense didn't go off… Tucker, could you scan the outside of the Sub to see if we have any stow-a-ways?"

"Sure dude, just give me a sec…" He whipped out his PDA, and on the screen a very detailed set of blueprints was seen. Zooming in towards the bottom is a see through image of a silver disk. As Tucker examines it, he leans over Sam and whispers to Danny, "I found something attached to the right engine, it looks a bit like an EMP device, but not one I've ever seen before." Just then, a noticeable beeping noise fills the Sub and everyone inside stops talking.

"Tuck, what happened?" Danny asked as he tried to maintain a calm demeanor.

"I don't know. It just activated without warning."

"Well shut it off."

"I'm trying." Tucker tapped at his PDA like a madman, trying to get past the encryptions. Suddenly, the red lights on the EMP flashed twice and sent an electric current through the Sub and into the right engine, as well as Danny who had been squeezing the metal wall tightly in frustration. He screamed as the electricity coursed through his body, making him feel as though every molecule of him was on fire. The class screamed at the sight of their classmate being lit up like a firecracker whiles the Fenton's, Valerie, Sam, and Tucker just yelled,

"Danny!"

Then all hell broke loose. The right engine gave out, and the Sub spiraled out of control. Danny was thrown from his eat, and his head hit the wall in the very back, next to the emergency exit door, and directly above the left engine. A loud thud was heard from the back, followed by a pained yelp, and Danny passed out. Everyone screamed as the sub went down. Kwan and Star, who hadn't been strapped in, were thrown from their seats and two distinct cracks of breaking bones could be heard followed by two screams of pain. Over the classes screams, Maddie yelled,

"Jack! My controls are jammed!"

As the sub continued to spin in a down ward spiral Valerie caught a glimpse of an island covered in jungle, far in the distance. She recognized from the one time that she had been trapped in the Ghost Zone handcuffed to Phantom. As Sam was holding on to her seat tightly, hair whipping around her face, far into the distance, barely visible, she caught a glimpse of Walker's Jail. Tucker clutched his PDA tightly, he was filled with dread as he looked out the window and saw Pariahs keep, home of the Fright Knight and the king himself, very close by.

Jack then tried to jerk his controls to make up for Maddie's lack of, but instead the Sub then went into a fast pace barrel roll causing Nathan to lose his breakfast. Finally Jack managed to regain control of the Sub with instruction from Maddie, but neither could do anything to stop the remaining engine from thrusting them down towards a large island, with some vegetation on it. Everyone screamed again at the sight of the rapidly approaching rock that was getting larger and closer with every second, while Mr. Lancer, eyes wide as saucers, yelled, "Pride and Prejudice!" The only ones not screaming were Team Phantom, Valerie, and the Fenton's, who instead all gritted their teeth as they braced for impact. Maddie then tried to prepare everyone for the crash.

"Heads down, and brace yourselves!"

Then, as if the screams of his class were enough to wake him, Danny opened his eyes in confusion but quickly focused when he caught a glimpse through the back left window, of the Fenton Portal. It was only a glimpse, not even a full second, and yet to Danny, it felt like an eternity as he saw in that glimpse, the unmistakable image of the portal pulsing with energy, electricity coursing around and through it, before it gave a bright flash of pure energy and then shrunk in on itself like a closing worm hole, before it gave off one final flash of green and white light and energy, and disappeared. He then felt in his gut that something was about to happen, after years of ghost fighting, he had learned to trust that feeling. Forgetting about everyone that could have seen him, he panicked and instinctually turned intangible, just in time for the remaining engine to finally give out from the overload of work, and give off a small explosion right next to Danny, the force throwing him through the wall behind him and knocking him out again once he was free falling outside of the Speeder. The Sub crashed at an angle, its momentum plowing it through the ground, pieces of the Sub being ripped off from the force, including the emergency exit door, which was already damaged from the engine explosions, in the back. Finally, it grinded to a halt, the sound of metal grinding against stone, screaming at everybody still inside.

At 8:07 A.M. Friday morning, the Fenton Portal was destroyed, and the English 11 class cut off and lost to the desolate realm known to humans as, The Ghost Zone.

**Well there you have it, chapter 3 is now complete. So what did you guys think, did you enjoy it, did you hate it, reviews are greatly appreciated and remember to tell me if you think the rating should change. To those TxV fans out there, don't worry, if all goes according to plan, by the end of the story, they should be a cute couple, just give it time. So review please, I want to know what you guys think. **

5

** -Raven**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Hi everybody, I'm back. Thanks for the reviews and follows, they really can be quite motivating. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, it wasn't easy to write it so if it sounds bad, not really my fault… so remember to review and tell me what you think. **

Ch. 4:

The Fenton Sub had crashed into the center of the island, leaving a trail of destroyed vegetation, tossed dirt, and pieces of the ship itself, it had finally grinded to a halt, a good 200 feet from where they originally hit. Inside, everyone groaned at the pain of still being alive. As Maddie slowly got up from her seat, she asked,

"Is everyone alright?"

The only response she got was a series of groans and several sets of tired glares that seemed more like grimaces. As she looked around doing a silent head count, she noticed that they were missing one. She then noticed the demolished emergency exit and worriedly asked, with a slight hint of panic,

"Where's Danny?"

As both Sam and Tucker's heads cleared, they realized what she had said and shot out of their seats with a cry of,

"Danny!" and without even acknowledging anyone else, sprinted to the outside of the speeder. As everyone inside just watched them in amazement from the loyalty and genuine concern they showed for their missing friend, the duo stopped and started looking around the debris frantically for their friend.

"There he is." Tucker said as he pointed at a figure lying in the debris that showed just how much damage they had sustained. Sam and Tucker didn't even notice that the class had already followed them outside and over to Danny. Kwan was being supported by Dash, his ankle either broken or badly sprained, and he was covered in bruises from hitting the walls and floor of the Speeder. Paulina's hair was messed up and tangled, and she had a few bruises forming on her arms and legs, as well as her midsection where her seatbelt had been. She was holding Star close to her, who was cradling her left wrist. The angle it was bent at claimed it was broken. Like Paulina, her hair was also a mess and she was covered in bruises from being thrown around, but she had a small cut on her left cheek that was bleeding slightly.

As Sam rolled Danny off of his stomach and onto his side the class and adults held back gasps as they got a look at his wounds. His hair was singed and he smelled a bit like singed flesh. His arms were scratched up and covered in friction burns from his clothes, and the long sleeves were slightly torn. His pants and legs were in similar conditions but the sturdy and reinforced clothing designed by Sam, Tucker, and Frostbite, had managed to hold together surprisingly well, saving Danny from worse injuries. However what really caught the groups' eyes was the large cut on his face that had originally knocked him out. It went from his right temple to his chin, and was considerably wide at the top and thinned down towards the bottom, but most shocking was the steady stream of blood and something green with a slight glow to it, stemming from the cut.

"He's a bit banged up, but he has a pulse and he's breathing steady, he'll be fine."

Sam's voice shook the class from their stupor and some looked at her instead.

"How are you so sure?" Mikey quietly asked as he looked up from Danny's still form to Sam, who was crouching over him in a slightly protective stance that everybody immediately noticed. A soft groan and the groups attention was on Danny again. As he opened his eyes and saw his class huddled around him, he said the first thing that popped into his head,

"Well, did _anyone_ get the number of the truck that hit me?"

Sam and Tucker just laughed at their friend knowing that he was going to be fine, and Danny's question managed to get the rest of the group smiling. Maddie rushed forward and enveloped her son into a suffocating hug that rivaled Jack Fenton's and said,

"Oh! My poor baby boy, are you alright? That was a nasty shock you got there…"

As Maddie continued to fret over her son, resembling a panicked mother hen, the class started to snicker at Danny's misfortune. Blushing furiously, he finally managed to get out a stammered,

"I'm fine, Mom."

"Sweetie, are you sure, you don't have any sprains or breaks right? You must have fallen pretty far when the emergency exit was blasted off."

"Wait, when was the door was blasted off? The last thing I remember is going intan-

Danny suddenly stopped talking at his friend's frantic expressions and motions, telling him to stop and just go with it. Luckily no one thought anything of his comment.

"Oh Danny. You must have still been knocked out when you fell out of the ship."

"Well…I'm fine, so no harm done right?" Danny said with a nervous smile on his face.

"I don't know sweetie. The Sub is wrecked, we're on a floating island, and I don't know which way the portal is- Danny, what's wrong with your cut?" Maddie said as she finally noticed the strange substance.

"Cut…?" Danny then noticed the wet sticky feeling on his face and as he lifted a hand to it, his hand revealed blood with very noticeable amounts of ectoplasm. As he looked at his concerned mother, he knew that he would have to tell her _something_ and that every second he spent trying to find a reasonable lie, the less likely it was that she would believe him. Seeing no other way, he decided to give a lie of omission. After all, the best lies often had hints of truth in them. Looking at his class and parents, he knew that he was out of time to think and instead began to carefully give them an explanation.

"Well… Mom, Dad, do you guy's remember the day when the portal started working?"

"Well of course, we had left to go buy fudge because it hadn't immediately worked when we first turned it on, and when we came back, it was up and running. You said that you had been standing near it when it started and that it gave you a small shock. It must have just taken a while for it to start and stabilize the energy inside."

"Yeah… that's not really what happened…" Danny then looked away and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. The entire group watched in awe as the large cut began to shrink before their very eyes. "You guys' just looked so disappointed when it didn't work that I just had to try something." By now the cut was halfway healed. "It turns out that Dad put an 'On' button inside the portal as well as outside." The cut began to slow down as it got smaller. "When I went inside, I _might have,_ um, tripped on a loose wire and I may or may not have landed on the uh 'On' button…" As he looked up at the eyes staring blankly back at him, he desperately tried to judge their reactions.

Maddie then looked him in the eye and instantly became furious once she realized what he had done.

"Daniel Fenton! You went inside the portal not knowing what could have happened! That portal puts out large amounts of electricity _and _ecto-tricity! You could have been hurt, you could have died-'She stopped suddenly and quietly asked him in a horrified tone, "You didn't die, did you?"

"What! No! I'm still alive…"

"But the amount of energy should have killed you! It would have been the equivalent of being electrocuted with all the energy of the Ghost Zone itself, you should be dead…" She trailed off at the sudden realization that one of her inventions almost killed her child.

"But it didn't kill me Mom, I'm fine, it just did something else…"

Motherly concern took over as she demanded to know what happened instead.

"It didn't kill me because the ectoplasm, bonded to all of my cells and practically super-glued itself to my DNA. You know that ectoplasm is resilient to electricity being another form of energy itself." As the class continued to stare at him he quickly said, "But it doesn't hurt me, in fact it's keeping me alive, and lets me heal real quick, honest!" He desperately tried to look sincere as he waited for his mother's reaction. Seeing that he was fine, and seemed to be telling the truth, even if she felt like he was holding something back, she decided to let it go with a final statement of,

"When we get home I'm still going to do some tests to make sure you really are 'fine.' "

Danny sighed in relief knowing that this was probably going to be the most he could get from his mom and quickly agreed to the tests, so long as they weren't painful. Maddie then stood up and said to the group,

"All right, as of right now, we are stranded in the Ghost Zone, so our best bet would be to start making our way back to portal to try and get home." As everybody looked around for a hint of the portal that brought them to the alternate dimension in the first place, Danny saw Skulker's island to his left, Pariah's Keep close by on his right, and far off into the distance in front of him was Walker's Jail. He knew that this meant that the portal should be directly behind him, so he turned around and seeing the empty space that was usually occupied by the portal, he remembered what he saw as the ship went down. As Sam and Tucker also noticed the missing portal, they asked him,

"What are we going to do now?"

All of them knew that Danny was the only one who knew the Ghost Zone as well as well as he knew Amity Park, both from instincts that came with being half ghost, and experience from getting lost a few times.

"I'm not sure, if we can get to Vlad's portal, we can get out of here. The only problem is that we have to go through Pariah's Keep and pass Skulker's island to get there. We could go to the Far Frozen for the infi-map, but then we would have to go through Pariah's Keep and pass Walker's Jail. Either way, we have to go to Pariah's Keep to get to the trails that connect the Ghost Zone together. That plus we could try to get to Clockwork's, but it's the farthest from here since it's in the Realm of Time."

"Well, we can't just sit here. We'll just be sending out signals of emotional energy to every malevolent ghost out there that we're currently sitting ducks." Sam said rising an eyebrow with her arms crossed as she tried to reason with Danny.

"I know that Sam, it's just that no matter which way we go, we run the risk of getting into tons of trouble."

"Well we need to pick a direction dude, how about this. We head towards Vlad's portal, that way we only have to deal with Skulker and maybe a couple of other ghosts on the way rather than all of Walker's guards." Tucker said as he looked at his downloaded infi-map on his PDA.

"Okay, yeah. That sounds alright, but one problem, how are we going to convince everyone to go that way?"

Tucker and Sam looked at each other quickly with a glance that said, 'he's not going to like this part' and then they looked at Danny, staring at him expectantly.

"What?" He asked looking at the two of them.

"Danny,' Sam started carefully, 'we were thinking that maybe you should uh, take charge. You know, lead us through this mess."

"What! I can't do that, most of the kids here would never listen to me, and how am I supposed to explain to my parents that I expertly know my way around the Ghost Zone, a dimension that not even they have ever looked inside of and are constantly telling us that to do so would be extremely dangerous!"

"Tell them the truth. That you've been in here before and know your way around and the way out. Of course you'll also have to explain to them that the portal we came through is supposed to be right there, and is now gone." Sam said as she pointed in the direction of where the Fenton Portal used to reside while Tucker just nodded his head in agreement while looking at different routes they could take on his PDA. As they looked back at the group they noticed that Maddie was finishing up the task of bandaging Star's hand, wrist, and lower arm in a make shift splint, using the supplies from the emergency first aid kit, and they also saw that Kwan's foot, ankle, and lower leg, was already bandaged up and he was now resting next to Dash. As Danny sighed he faced his friends and said,

"Fine, but if anything happens, I'm blaming you two."

With that said, the Trio began to make their way back towards the group. As they got closer, they could see Star and Paulina talking, mostly Paulina, Dash and Kwan chatting, and Mikey and Nathan staying away from everyone while talking quietly. Soon they were able to hear different parts of the conversations.

"-Hair is a mess, and my skirt has a small tear in it now, the Ghost Boy can't see-

"-Can't have a sprained ankle! How am I supposed to play football!?"

"-Trapped in a dimension full of ghosts Nathan! What's going to-

Rolling their eyes at their classmate's words, not one of them even noticed Valerie's apologetic eyes staring at Danny, as they got close enough to the adult to hear them.

"Any luck finding the portal yet, Mrs. Fenton?" Mr. Lancer asked as he watched Maddie look around with a pair of binoculars that she recovered from the Sub.

"No, not yet, it couldn't have disappeared, we didn't go far from it. Jack, do you think any of the ship can be repaired?"

"No Mads, we don't have the right tools here to fix the engines, they both exploded. Plus a lot of the Sub just fell apart on impact." He replied from the slightly overturned Sub. Maddie sighed as she put down the binoculars allowing her to see Danny in front of her with his friends slightly behind him.

"Oh sorry sweetie, didn't see you there."

"Yeah, I noticed."

Frowning when she saw the slight amount of tension in her son's shoulders, she asked him,

"Danny, is there something you wanted to tell me?"

Rubbing the back of his neck nervously as he looked at his two friends for backup, who just waved him on in encouragement, he said,

"Yeah mom, there is something I need to tell you." Looking up at her he saw that his father and Mr. Lancer had joined her, and were all looking at him expectantly. Looking down again, he mumbled incoherently.

"Danny…I didn't understand a word of that."

"I um…"

"Danny, I'm a little busy trying to find our portal right now, so please tell me quickly, or wait till we get home." At his hesitation she sighed and started looking around the Ghost Zone again.

"Mom…"

"Danny, this really isn't the time."

"But Mom…"

"Hold on Danny."

"But… I know the-

"Sweetie, whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait till we're safe at home."

Fed up, Danny finally exclaimed loudly for everyone to hear,

"I've been in the Ghost Zone before, and I know how to get us out!"

As everyone in the group just stared at Danny, the A-Lister's had looks of disbelief on their faces. Valerie had a look that practically screamed 'It's about time', while Mikey and Nathan, were shocked. Mr. Lancer was stunned at the sudden revelation that Danny knew more than his parents, but the Fenton's went through all of these looks, before finally stopping on anger. As a group everyone yelled out at Danny,

"WHAT!"

**AN: So what did you guys think, did you like it, did you hate it, and I just wanted to say happy Danniversary everybody. 10 years, a whole decade, whooo! Also I'm not completely sure if I'll be able to update chapter 5 next week because my parents are dragging me on a vacation for spring break so if you don't see next weeks chapter, don't panic, but please don't get mad. Raven over and out.**

7


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Hi everybody, now I know that you're all probably upset that I haven't updated in so long but I have a perfectly reasonable excuse. I just haven't thought… of it… yet… please don't hurt me. But, I made this chapter extra long to make up for it. So enjoy…**

Ch. 5:

"What!"

Danny flinched from the harsh onslaught of clamoring voices on his sensitive hearing. Even covering his ears was not enough to block out all of the voices overloading his senses, but his mother, she was the loudest of them all and was still screaming as everyone else began to fall silent.

"Daniel Fenton! You explain this instant why you've been in the Ghost Zone before and what you were thinking! Your father and I have told you repeatedly to stay away from ghosts, and the portal, it's dangerous! You know that, so what possessed you to disobey us!"

At the harsh onslaught of words coming from the fuming Mrs. Fenton, the group sent Danny sympathetic looks, even Paulina and Dash. Once Maddie _finally_ stopped yelling, Danny closed his eyes, took a calming breath, and said,

"The first time was not my fault; I didn't even want to go in. Dad was showing me the Specter Speeder and-

"What do you mean _first_ time?"

Realizing his mistake, Danny flinched under his mother's harsh glare. At that point, he was extremely grateful that she didn't have the ability to shoot lasers from her eyes. When she didn't say anything else, he decided it was safe to continue.

"During your anniversary, Dad was showing me the Specter Speeder and when you asked him if he remembered what day it was, and he said no, you got upset and when you punched the engine, it started and neither of you noticed that it took off with me inside. You were still scolding Dad when I finally managed to find my way back, and neither of you _still_ didn't notice when I drove back in." Surprised by this information, Maddie asked the question that was on her mind,

"So why did you go in a second time?"

Smiling sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck, Danny said,

"While you and Dad were in Spittoon, I was cleaning the lab so you wouldn't get angrier, and I accidently knocked your anniversary gift into the Ghost Zone so after school I went in after it." 'And got arrested in the process, staged a mass break-out, and became a fugitive in the Ghost Zone.' Danny thought to himself, but they didn't need to know that, not yet at least.

Smiling gently at her son, Maddie said,

"Sweetie, you didn't have to go into the Ghost Zone just for that, but I appreciate the gesture."

Jack chose then to speak up as he beamed in pride at his son for his determination to fix a mistake.

"So Danny-boy, you know the way out of this place?" As Danny nodded, Jack smiled and clapped his son on the back, almost causing him to face plant into the ground. "Well that's great, in that case why don't you lead the way."

Looking at the rest of his class, he saw that Paulina looked disgusted at the idea, and Dash looked like he was going to beat him within an inch of his life. Swallowing nervously, he turned back to his parents and said,

"Mom, Dad, Mr. Lancer, can I talk to you guys in private real quick?"

As the adults looked at each other and then at the class, understanding filled their eyes and they nodded in agreement towards Danny, and as a group they walked a ways away from the class.

"Um… almost everyone here hates me and would never follow my lead."

"Danny, sweetie, you put yourself into this situation, and while I'm not very happy with the idea of you being in the Ghost Zone before, right now we need you to put aside your differences with the class and lead us out of here." Maddie said in a comforting manner as she put a hand on his shoulder for reassurance.

"If it helps Daniel, we could lead with you so they don't feel as if they are taking 'orders' from just you." Mr. Lancer suggested as he looked back at the class that was talking amongst themselves.

"That…might actually work." Danny mused out loud as he too watched the class.

"Don't worry son, you're a Fenton, and Fenton's can get through anything!" Jack said as he smiled down at his son.

Meanwhile, the class, (the A-Lister's) was expressing how they felt about being led by Danny.

"There's no way that Fenton can know his way around here, he's too wimpy and scared of ghosts. He always runs away scared whenever a ghost attacks the school. If anything, we need someone strong and brave to get us through this, like me." Dash said as he pointed at himself with a smirk planted on his face.

"Ugh. I'm not going to follow that nobody around this Ghost World; I can't let the Ghost Boy see me hanging around a loser." Paulina said as she inspected her perfectly manicured nails, a look of horror on her face as she notices that one nail had chipped nail polish.

"But what if Danny really does know how to get out of here? He is our best bet right now." Mikey said timidly as he cautiously approached the popular kids.

"Ew, why is that loser talking to us." Star said as she put her good hand on her hip and looked at Mikey down her nose.

"I-I'm just saying that maybe we should listen to Danny, he may actually be able to get us out of this mess." Mikey said as he looked down at the ground in fear of punishment from Dash.

"Nobody asked you Mikey, now don't talk to us, you're nowhere near cool enough." Dash sneered as he shoved the poor nerd away. Sam, Tucker, and Valerie however, just rolled their eyes at their classes antics and resumed their private conversation.

"If he thinks that bullying us is going to get us out of here, he's got another thing coming to him." Sam said as she glanced at the jock.

"Dash can be slow, but he'll get it into his thick head eventually that we're not in school anymore and that shoving us around isn't going to get him anywhere… I think." Valerie said nodding her head as she watched him flex his arms in front of Paulina and Star, who only fawned over his strength. Tucker watched as Valerie glanced at Danny and bit her lower lip.

"You alright Valerie?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that…" She looked at Danny again who was still talking with his parents and Mr. Lancer. Sam who was watching Valerie carefully, took a guess at what she was worrying about and said,

"Don't worry Valerie, Danny's a lot tougher than he lets everyone believe, he can get us out of here."

"I know…" was the reply but before Sam or Tucker could question what she meant Danny walked over to them and facing his friends asked,

"Tucker, how many Specter Deflector's did you pack for everyone?"

"Ten, not counting our own of course. You want to start handing out the protective gear now?"

"Yeah, that would be smart."

"Did you tell them about the Fenton Portal yet Danny?" Sam asked. One look at his slightly guilty look was enough to tell her the answer, but she asked anyways, "You didn't, did you?" It wasn't so much a question, but more of a confirmation of her thoughts.

"Uh, actually, with everything going on, I forgot to mention that to my parents. Oh well, maybe it would be better any way's to tell everyone at once. Oh hi…Valerie. How long have you been standing there?" He said as he noticed her for the first time.

"The entire time, do you mind me asking why exactly you had Tucker pack ten Specter Deflectors? It's almost as if you knew that-

She stopped laughing as she noticed his slight flinch as she said that.

"Danny… did you know that something like this was going to happen?"

"No. Not really. It was just a feeling, so I wanted to be prepared for a worst case scenario."

Remembering what she had been about to do before this whole craziness started she asked,

"Sam, Tucker, do you guys mind if I talk to Danny here in private for a minute?"

Sam was about to protest to the idea of leaving the two alone, but a look from Danny stopped her.

"It's alright Sam, I'll be fine and I'll be in plain sight, alright."

"Come on Sam; let's just give them a minute." Tucker said as he trusted Danny's judgment completely, even if the teen had a bad habit of trusting people too quickly. As Danny watched Tucker lead Sam away slowly from earshot, he turned back to Valerie and asked,

"What is it Val?"

"Are you Phantom?"

"What! Valerie, what makes you think-

"Answer the question Fenton. Are you Phantom?" she watched as Danny seemed to squirm as he looked for a way out of the question. She felt bad about putting him in this spot when it was obvious that he didn't want anyone to know, but she decided that being quick and getting straight to the point would be the best method for this.

Danny couldn't answer, he didn't know what gave him away, but somehow she had figured it out. On one hand he could tell her, and get it over with, but he still wasn't sure how she would react to having her guess proven correct. He was pretty sure that she wasn't completely sure yet, and just needed him to confirm it for her, but if she was this close already, then there was no telling if he would be able to continue hiding it from her. Of course, having Valerie be in the know about him did have certain benefits, if she forgave him for lying to her of course. Finally he made his decision.

"What gave me away?" He said with a tone of acceptance.

"A few things." She admitted, "You both look the same, you're just photonegatives of each other, and the incident with Danielle opened my eyes to the existence of halfas. That plus you're voice only gets an echo to it when you're Phantom. I can't believe that it took me this long to see that there are so many similarities between the two of you, but then it was always just you, wasn't it?"

"I'm sorry Val."

"No. I'm sorry, I was wrong. You always kept telling me that you didn't want to fight and I just didn't listen."

"But, it sort of was my fault that your Dad lost his job and that you lost your friends."

"Actually, I think that maybe I should be thanking you… if Dad hadn't lost his job, then I never would have seen that they never really were my friends and that they only hung out with me because of my money. Star and I still talk though so at least she is a friend. Besides, I never would have gotten the chance to know you, Sam, and Tucker."

"Oh… well that's good, but about Cujo, he's really not my dog."

"Fair enough, but don't think this means that I'll be going easy on you Ghost Boy, I've still got my eye on you." She said with a playful smirk and her hands on her waist.

"Wouldn't have it any other way." He said as he chuckled.

Valerie frowned as she remembered their predicament, "So how are we getting out of here?"

"Well, our portal disappeared, so unfortunately we have to make our way towards Vlad's."

"Which Vlad, Master's or Plasmius's?" She asked as she observed him.

"Um…" Not knowing what to say, he wasn't quite sure how she would react if she knew that her benefactor was actually an evil half ghost who viewed her as nothing more than a pawn. Noticing his discomfort, Valerie sighed and said,

"Relax Fenton, I know about our oh so _dear_ mayor." Sarcasm lacing the words so heavily, it was almost visible.

"W-what! You know. He doesn't know that you know does he? 'Cause if he does know that you know or if he even finds out or gets suspicious that you know, then he won't hesitate to make sure that you won't be a problem to his plans." Danny paled at the possibilities of what could happen as different scenarios played through his head.

"I'm not really sure to be completely honest, I quit working for him after the Danielle incident by telling him that I needed a break from the assignments so I could get my life together a little bit more. He let me go with the condition that he doesn't supply me with any new equipment until I'm ready to come back."

'Well that explains why I haven't seen her hunting ghosts as often as usual any more.' Danny thought as he tried to figure out what this meant for Valerie. He sighed as he couldn't figure out the implications of Vlad simply releasing his pawn.

"Well, just be careful… Plasmius doesn't just let go of his pawns when they ask, he likes to be in control of everything. It's all just a game of chess to him."

"Well how come he hasn't gotten rid of you yet, you always seem to get in Plasmius's plans."

"That's different, you could say that we have leverage over the other, so he can't have me, but I can't really do anything drastic to him. There's only three things that he can't have in the world, the Packer's, my mom, and me."

"Why does he want you?" Valerie asked, she didn't even want to find out why he wanted Mrs. Fenton, when she was already married.

"He wants me to be his evil son/apprentice since we're the only two Halfas in existence, or at least we were until Danielle." He frowned as he thought of where the younger Halfa could be.

"Did he actually kidnap an innocent little girl and turn her into a Halfa?" She asked with a look of horror and pity on her face.

"No actually, Dani is a failed clone of me. He finally got fed up with me saying no to his offer and decided to try to clone me. Danielle is the only one that could actually think for herself. I showed her who Vlad really was and the rest is history, but enough about that I need to explain the situation to the rest of the class." As he started to walk away, he noticed that Valerie wasn't following, so he turned around again and said with a reassuring grin, "Val, you coming?" She smiled in response followed him over to Sam and Tucker. "All right Tuck, you ready to start handing out the gear?"

"I've been ready."

"I'll hand out the Phantom Phones Danny." Sam said found the pocket that held all of the tiny communicators.

"Then that just leaves me to explain the situation to everyone." Danny said with a pained smile.

After explaining the situation to everyone, it was interesting to watch the reactions. However, no one was very happy to hear that the portal was supposed to be slightly above them, and was now gone. Passing out the modified Specter Deflectors had been fairly easy until it was Paulina's turn to receive hers. Tucker hadn't been paying attention to whom he was handing a brown colored Specter Deflector belt and Paulina instantly began to throw a fit once she realized that he wasn't paying attention to her, and worst of all, the belt didn't match her outfit. She had been screaming at a stunned Tucker until Danny came over, fixed her with a cold hard glare, and wordlessly handed her a white one that looked very similar to the regular belt she was already wearing.

Sam had been handing out the Phantom Phones and showing people how to properly use them when Paulina once again began complaining, this time about what tacky earrings they were. At this point, people had begun to just ignore her. Of course Paulina didn't take this news very well once she realized what everyone was doing. Everyone had been walking for only an hour and Danny's self restraint was being tested beyond its usual limit. It didn't help that they were getting closer to Skulker's lair.

"Oh Benny!" Paulina said as she caught up to Danny at the front.

"It's Danny, Paulina" Danny replied as he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Whatever, I wanted to know when are we going to stop for a break. We've been walking forever… and my feet are killing me!"

"Maybe if you wore practical shoes instead of heels, you wouldn't have that problem." Sam said as her patience for the Latina girl began too drastically thin.

"Oh please, I have to look my best for when the Ghost Boy comes here to save me."

At this, Paulina smiled as if she was the luckiest person in the world, Sam narrowed her eyes at the popular girl, and Danny cringed in horror at her overly peppy tone. His only thought on the matter was, 'What did I ever see in her?' Tucker didn't even notice anything as he studied the map on his PDA.

"We'll stop soon Paulina." She smiled and opened her mouth to say something when Danny continued. "However, the only reason we're stopping soon is because we can't afford to stop walking when we reach Skulker's territory."

"Why can't we stop when we reach this ghost's territory sweetie?" Maddie asked as she walked next to her son and his friends.

"He's a hunter of things rare and unique, but anything in his territory is fair game to him. He also likes to hunt me whenever he gets the chance." Was the reply from raven-haired teen as he continued walking without thinking to much about what he had just said.

"And why exactly would he hunt you, Danny?" Maddie asked as she tried to not panic at the thought of her child being hunted by a ghost.

"Um… I'm not completely sure, I mean, it's not like he's just going to tell me if I ask him." Danny said as he mentally face-palmed at his slip up. "Well, we're about ten to fifteen minutes outside of his territory so we should stop here for a half hour break." The moment Danny had said "Stop here" everyone had just collapsed on the spot from the constant walking with the exception of the Trio, who were used to this kind of activity, Valerie, from ghost hunting, and Maddie.

Jack Fenton was impressed with his son. Not only did he show excellent leadership skills, but he also didn't let his relationship with his peers get in the way of what he had to do. Also, the entire time that they had been walking, he noticed that his son and his friends didn't really show any signs of fatigue from walking like everyone else was. They had been walking for an hour and Danny had set a rigorous pace that had even Jack tired after only twenty minutes of walking. His son's friends however were able to keep up, if slightly winded from the activity. Danny was doing the best though. He had been keeping a hard, but steady, pace for an hour now and he didn't even look tired. As everyone started to sit down, he just paced back and forth, occasionally glancing at the floating island that they had to pass through. Once the half hour was up, Danny had everyone set a fast pace as they marched on the edge of the island. They had been walking for twenty-five minutes and people were starting to get relaxed and goofing off making enough noise to alert the entire ghost zone, and that was when the sound of rockets was heard.

Danny paled as he recognized that particular sound from years of hearing it in his ghost fights.

"Oh no." He said, not realizing that he spoke out loud, earning looks from his class.

"You of all people should know better than to trespass on my territory, whelp!"

"It can never be easy, can it?"

A missile was fired and the class screamed as they scattered.

**AN: And there's chapter five. It might take me two to three weeks to get the next chapter posted because my goal with this story is to write each chapter a little bit longer than the last and I still have yet to get started on chapter six, so please forgive me and post a review I wasn't very happy with this chapter for a lot of reasons, but I want to know what you all think. **

**-Raven**

9


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